Chapter 24 - Becoming A Vampire

"Actually, you have the abilities of a vampire already. Super-speed, super-strength, super-agility, super-stamina and so on. The only thing left to transform you into a vampire is to activate the thirst for blood in you." His Animal Spirit said.

Xiao Lin's sharp eyes then shone with a glow of comprehension.

He then recalled when he escaped from that inn that he went to eat using super-speed, an ability that manifested as a blood-red aura around him and produced a strongly overwhelming smell of iron.

'So I already possessed the abilities?' Xiao Lin asked with astonishment in his eyes.

"Yes" His Animal Spirit answered.

Xiao Lin nodded.

He then proceeded to ask his Animal Spirit a question that flashed in his head.

"Blood Wolf God, did you immediately bestow me with those vampiric abilities when I achieved fusion with you, at that time that I was falling from that high cliff to the ground?" He questioned.

"Yes. Immediately we combined and caused that bloody ominous phenomenon to appear in the sky in this region, the powers of a vampire naturally passed into your body from me. I didn't need to do anything. However, to make you a real vampire, I will have to activate the true ability for a vampire in you, and that is 'Vampiric Thirst'. Only then, can you be truly seen as a vampire, a fierce, cold-skinned marauder of blood." His Animal Spirit replied.

"Hmm." Xiao Lin uttered.

He then looked around in the house and said within himself to his Animal Spirit 'Let's do this later, probably in the evening or at night. It would soon be morning, and sun would shine into this place whether I like it or not. And if I have been turned into a vampire already, I won't be able to resist even the tiniest, heat-bearing ray of the sun that would penetrate into the room from the window and cause me to spontaneously combust in flames. I don't want to abruptly die when I have only just started my first step to becoming a vampiric hegemon.'

'Hmm' His Animal Spirit uttered.

Xiao Lin then continued 'So, when I have gathered lots of thick dyes or paints which I will use to heavily coat the windows of this house from within, blocking off the sun rays from coming in and turning the house into a night-dark place, you can go right ahead to activate my Vampiric Thirst ability to turn me into a true vampire.'

"Hmm." His Animal Spirit uttered again.

"Okay then. Just prepare your body and mind for it. Because when I activate the ability, a lot of things will drastically change in your body."

"So as a first, you will no longer be able to eat meals meant for humans. You should easily understand what that would mean for you, which is, you can only depend on the blood of myriad creatures for your continued existence. Without feeding on blood, your vampiric abilities will begin to weaken that they may become inexistent. And trust me, you will begin to emaciate and die."

"However, you shouldn't be excessively worried about death if you get trapped in a distant isolated place and wouldn't be able to feed on blood in there to maintain your life and sustain your vampiric powers."

"I said that with a hundred percent level of confidence because true actual death can only happen to you after so many centuries. That's one of the many shocking abilities of being a vampire, which is astonishing longevity that can equal that of god-like cultivators in your cultivation world. Then nigh-immortality, for as long as you can feed on blood to nourish your corpse-like body anyways."

"But if that isn't done after so many years, you would start to grow extremely weak that your vampiric powers may seemingly vanish. So, you will have to constantly nourish yourself by feeding on the blood of any creatures that you will come across.'

'Secondly, you won't be able to resist the sight of blood. If you don't have a strong control over yourself, you will expose yourself to the world and give them the feeling that you a strange, human-like fiendish creature that feeds on the blood of others. And trust me, a lot of cultivators will try to hunt you down, or possibly take you away to perform innumerous torturous experiment on your blood and gene."

"Thirdly, as soon as that ability is activated, you will die, like real death. And this would definitely make your skin to become extremely pale in color, producing the thought in the minds of everyone that would see you that you are a living, walking corpse.'

'Then lastly, you will have to get yourself a nice wooden coffin. If there's no coffin, you won't be able to sleep. You can remain fully awake for thousands of nights and not feel dizzy at all. This won't be good to your corpse-like body, as it start will start to slowly emaciate and wither over the centuries. Also, it's only in a coffin that you will enjoy a good quality sleep. Or in a tomb casted from earthen materials. I believe that you should have grasped the reason why it is like that.'

'Yea, I understand. Because I am already a dead person, a corpse.' Xiao Lin responded.

'Hmm' His Animal Spirit uttered and then kept quiet.

"But wow!" Xiao Lin who listened to what the Blood Wolf God said, couldn't help but shake his head in astonishment.

"Just so many damned limitations. Well, I am cool with it." He said with a smile.

Xiao Lin then closed his eyes to sleep his last as a human.

***

Morning...

Xiao Lin stood from where he laid in to sleep and went to the corner where he dragged the body of the cultivator that he killed to.

Once he got to where the smelling corpse was, he began to check around the bloodied body of the cultivator for where he kept or concealed his pouch containing money.

Xiao Lin understood that he was only a fourth-layer Spiritual Ascendance state cultivator, so he definitely won't have a spatial ring on which would be worn on his fingers. And since he doesn't have a spatial ring, he would keep his personal things or possessions into a pouch or sack.

As he did so, the decaying smell exuding from the corpse irritated Xiao Lin that he decided to bury the body later in the night, when the mortals had gone to sleep and cultivators were deeply meditating and may not come out of it if they hear any type of sound.

Not long, he found the pouch which was made out of animal skin. Then he began to count the number of bronze coins stored in it.

"What a poor cultivator. He has only nine hundred bronze coins. Ugh! Would this be enough to buy me many paint vessels to thickly coat all the windows in this house? Well, I can only hope so." He said and stood to his feet from his crouching position before the rotting corpse.

He then made his way for the door to leave the house.

_

Putting the large hood of the cloak over his head to make it hard for some 'people' to instantly recognize him, he began to move from one street to the next in search of a shop or shops that sells paints or dyes.

After walking for hours, he finally got to one, following the description that a person in a particular street gave to him.

"Do you sell black paints?" He asked.

"Yes, I do" The shop owner answered.

Xiao Lin nodded his head.

He then said "I want thick ones, high-quality ones"

"Alright. How many vessels do you want?" The shop owner asked.

"How do you sell?" Xiao Lin questioned.

"Well, small paint vessel is sold for a hundred bronze coins. Medium paint vessel is sold for four hundred bronze coins. While large paint vessel is sold for a thousand bronze coins." The shop owner answered

"Hmm." Xiao Lin muttered.

He then began to think of how many paint vessels he would be able to buy using the bronze coins in that pouch.

After quickly performing the cost calculation in his head and bringing out bronze coins from that money storage pouch which he had previously stowed away into his spatial ring, he said to the shop owner as he handed the bronze coins in his hand over to the man "Give me two medium paint vessels. And don't try to cheat me. I can really distinguish between low-quality and high-quality paints. So, don't you dare try to cheat me, or I will come back here and cause chaos"

"Nope. I don't cheat people." The shop owner said while Xiao Lin nodded.

The shop owner then went into his large shop to bring out two medium paint vessels that contained high-quality paints.

As soon as the shop owner went in, Xiao Lin broke a smile across his face. Then after looking left and right to see that no one was looking at him, he began to quickly stow away the medium and large paint vessels that the man kept outside for display of what he sells into his spatial ring.

After keeping up to five medium and large paint vessels into his spatial ring, he made a run for it before the shop owner would come out.

Instantly deploying his Super-Speed ability which was a vampire-bound power, he dashed away at the full speed of an 8th-layer, Spiritual Ascendance stage cultivator back to that house which was now his.

Previously, when he was at the 1st-stage Spiritual Ascendance stage, he could achieve the foot speed of a 5th-layer Spiritual Ascendance stage cultivator. But now that he had broken through to the 3rd-layer Spiritual Ascendance stage, his speed on foot using that vampire-based movement ability had increased again by multiple folds.

Once he got to his house and closed the door behind him, he instantly got to work.

With the five paint vessels now lying on the ground, he picked one up and moved to a part of the house where a window was. And he didn't even try to be economical since he had more than enough to thickly coat the windows many times over.

Whoosh!

Splash!

He poured out all the black liquid content of the medium paint vessel at that window, instantly heavily dying it in black.

So at once, the illuminating rays coming the sun was abruptly cut off, making that place very dark.

Xiao Lin nodded his head with a smile in his face.

He then went to the other windows of the house with either the medium or large paint vessels in his hand and then splashed them with the black liquid content that they contained.

When he was done, in which the whole place had now been subjected to total darkness, he clapped his hand and communicated to his Animal Spirit.

"I am ready. You can activate the Vampiric Thirst ability." He said that with an unbreakable resolve in his eyes.

"Alright." The Blood Wolf God replied.

Then a moment later, Xiao Lin's body put out a primitive aura of unexplainable power.

Then when the aura retracted back into his body, Xiao Lin suddenly felt a thirst within.

The thirst that had suddenly surfaced within him, firstly started from the stage of an ember, and then rapidly grew to become like a towering, raging inferno.

He simply began to burn within with an immense, unquenchable thirst for blood.

The thirst that had suddenly come upon him was simply like no other. It was so intense that he felt like killing everything, no matter how tiny or large that they may be and drink their blood to quench the ravaging, burning thirst in his body.

However, after groaning in pain for sometime, with green veins bulging all over his forehead, neck and arms, he collapsed to the ground and began to twitch all over like he was epileptic. Then some moments later, he suddenly died, like true death... but only to awaken later and be reborn as a Vampire!